Serious games in business process management: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose

This study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) on serious games in the BPM domain, in order to answer: RQ1 – what are BPM games' learning objectives and design characteristics? RQ2 – How rigorously each BPM game was evaluated in terms of their effectiveness and entertainment?.

Design/methodology/approach

We followed the PRISMA statement method and systematic literature review standards. Selected studies were analyzed using qualitative evidence synthesis.

Findings

We found 37 references that describe 15 serious games within the BPM domain. Games are diverse, ranging from analog games that need a few hours to complete to complex digital games that require many sessions. Game evaluation should be generally improved as 27 publications can be considered as quasi-experimental or nonexperimental and potentially biased.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should focus on developing new games about process implementation and using other notations besides BPMN. More studies testing the reliability and validity of existing games in different settings and using more rigorous experimental designs are also necessary. Practitioners can identify thoroughly evaluated games relevant to their learning objectives.

Originality/value

This is the first SLR about BPM games. It consolidates the literature, analyzes, describes and categorizes 15 games with respect to their internal characteristics and evaluation reliability.

Citation

Machado Leitão, T., Lima Navarro, L.L., Flórido Cameira, R. and Silva, E.R. (2021), "Serious games in business process management: a systematic literature review", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 685-721. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-07-2020-0346